Galeazzo Ciano

Gian Galeazzo Ciano (18 March 1903-11 January 1944) was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy from 9 June 1936 to 6 February 1943, succeeding and preceding Benito Mussolini.

Biography
Gian Galeazzo Ciano was born on 18 March 1903 in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. He was the son of Admiral Costanzo Ciano, and Galeazzo and his father both took part in the 1922 March on Rome. Galeazzo briefly worked as a journalist before becoming a diplomat, serving as Fascist Italy's attaché to Brazil. He married Benito Mussolini's daughter Edda Mussolini in 1930, and in 1935 his father-in-law made him the minister of press and propaganda. Ciano became a bomber squadron commander during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, and he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs on his return in 1936. At the outbreak of World War II, Ciano knew that the Royal Italian Army was ill-prepared for war and that Nazi Germany would take advantage of Italy. On 24 July 1943, when Mussolini announced that Germany wanted to withdraw all Axis Powers troops from southern Italy, Count Dino Grandi asked for King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy to resume his full powers and oust Mussolini, who was leading Italy to defeat. Ciano agreed with him, betraying his father-in-law. Ciano, Edda, and their children fled to Germany, but Adolf Hitler returned them to Mussolini, who had Ciano, Emilio De Bono, Luciano Gottardi, Giovanni Marinelli, and Carlo Pareschi executed by firing squad for treason against his new Salo Republic.